


Childhood, Lost and Found

by Healy



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Character Study, Ficlet, Gen, Introspection, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Post-Weirdmageddon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-09-06 15:59:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16835872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Healy/pseuds/Healy
Summary: Ford reminisces about his childhood.





	Childhood, Lost and Found

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt "Childhood" for Forduary 2018.

Ford never felt this way before, but looking at the twins now, he wonders how Stan ever found the strength to take them in.

It hurts, just a little, to see them—ghosts of the past in flesh and blood—as they play in the Shack while the workers from town fix it up. Dipper is more cautious than he was as a child, Mabel more courteous than Stan ever was, but it still feels, more often than not, like they’re playing out some scene from the past, a better memory aid than faded pictures or old home movies.

What hurts most of all, though, is the easy, friendly bond they both share, one that Ford hasn’t had with his own brother in a long time. Mabel may make a mess of things, or Dipper get too involved in his projects, but they never hold it against the other for long.

Still, it seems like the chill between him and Stan is thawing, their old grudges fading away faster in the past week than they had in over thirty years apart. Once, Ford told a joke—a bad one, one that made even Dipper groan—and Stan laughed, long and hard, and slapped Ford on the back and asked if he had another one. Soon, the old wounds between them would heal. Soon, they would be brothers again.


End file.
